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Reluctant Reformers explores the centrality of racism to American politics through the origins, internal dynamics, and leadership of the major democratic and social justice movements between the early nineteenth century and the end of World War II. It focuses in particular on the abolitionists, the Populist Party, the Progressive reformers, and the women’s suffrage, labor, and socialist and communist movements.
Despite their achievements, virtually all these predominantly white movements failed to oppose, capitulated to, or even advocated racism at critical junctures in their history, with their efforts undercut by their inability to build and sustain a mass movement of both Black and white Americans.
Reluctant Reformers examines both the structural roots of racism in US radical movements and the impact of racist ideologies on the white-dominated core of each movement, how some whites resisted these pressures, and how Black people engaged with these movements. This edition includes a postscript describing the Black freedom movement of the 1960s and the central role it has played in the development of today’s radical social justice movements.
List of contents
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Foreword Reluctant Reformers as Guide—and Warning Jamelle Bouie
| ix
|
Preface
| xv
|
1. Introduction
| 1
|
2. Black Militancy Confronts Militant Abolitionism
| 7
|
3. Self-Interest and Southern Populism
| 43
|
4. Progressivism: Expediency and Accommodation
| 73
|
5. Woman Suffrage: Feminism and White Supremacy Chude Pamela Allen
| 111
|
6. Organized Labor: From Underdog to Overseer
| 153
|
7. Socialists, Communists and Self-Determination
| 193
|
8. Capitalism, Racism and Reform
| 231
|
Postscript: Recent Social Reform Movements
| 265
|
Notes
| 297
|
Index
| 323
|
About the Authors
| 339
|
About the author
Robert L. Allen is Professor Emeritus of Ethnic Studies and African American Studies, University of California, Berkeley, and previously taught at Mills College and San Jose State University. He is author of
Black Awakening in Capitalist America, The Port Chicago Mutiny and numerous articles and books on race and ethnicity. He was editor of
The Black Scholar journal and vice president of the Black World Foundation.
Chude Pamela Allen is on the Board of Directors of the Civil Rights Movement Archive, crmvet.org. She was editor of Union Women's Alliance to Gain Equality's newspaper,
UNION WAGE, and is author of
Free Space: A Perspective on the Small Group in Women's Liberation. She was featured in the films
Freedom on My Mind and
She's Beautiful When She's Angry.
Summary
Reluctant Reformers explores the centrality of racism to American politics through the origins, internal dynamics, and leadership of the major democratic and social justice movements between the early nineteenth century and the end of World War II. It focuses in particular on the abolitionists, the Populist Party, the Progressive reformers, and the women’s suffrage, labor, and socialist and communist movements.
Despite their achievements, virtually all these predominantly white movements failed to oppose, capitulated to, or even advocated racism at critical junctures in their history, with their efforts undercut by their inability to build and sustain a mass movement of both Black and white Americans.
Reluctant Reformers examines both the structural roots of racism in US radical movements and the impact of racist ideologies on the white-dominated core of each movement, how some whites resisted these pressures, and how Black people engaged with these movements. This edition includes a postscript describing the Black freedom movement of the 1960s and the central role it has played in the development of today’s radical social justice movements.
Additional text
“Sharp, compelling, and powerful—a model of well-structured historical argument … For the last five years, I have been on an intellectual journey into the relationship between race and class, and I can say for certain that this book has shaped much of the path I’m on. ” —Jamelle Bouie
“Reissued – And Relevant as Ever” — Organizing Upgrade
“A powerful book documenting how racist ideas and practices incapacitated the US’s most historically significant social movements” — Black Perspectives
“A useful, even essential history… Makes it clear how much remains to be done on the US Left to address the role of white supremacy” — CounterPunch
